MARYLAND FIRST TO PASS BENEFIT CORPORATION

On Monday the Maryland Legislature made history by being the first state in the US to pass a Benefit Corporation bill into law. The bill passed the House, 135-5, on Monday. The Senate version passed, 44-0.

The benefit corporation will allow corporations to consider stakeholder value not solely maximization of shareholder value, thereby, effectively eliminating the conflict between social/environmental mission and profit.

“I think that Maryland can become the Delaware of B corporations,” said said Sen. Jamie B. Raskin, the Senate sponsor of the legislation. “We could be the magnet for companies that want to organize in this way.”